Showing posts with label Academy Awards. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Academy Awards. Show all posts
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Adult Cast of "Slumdog" Speak After 8 Oscar Wins
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Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Inteview with Child Cast of 'Slumdog Millionaire' on the Oscar Red Carpet
A truly special time for the children who played such pivotal roles:
Sunday, February 22, 2009
"Slumdog Millionaire" a favorite for the Oscars
Via AP:
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LOS ANGELES – "Slumdog Millionaire" is arriving at the last stop in its rags-to-riches journey, steaming into the Academy Awards as the surefire favorite.
In keeping with its theme of bottomless optimism amid adversity, "Slumdog Millionaire" has led a charmed life, dodging a flirtation with straight-to-DVD, winning over critics and climbing toward $100 million hit status. The film has won top honors at all key earlier awards ceremonies, with one to go.
As Sunday dawned steel-pot gray in Los Angeles, where rain threatened to dampen the red carpet for the second year in a row and Hollywood's latest labor feud kicked up fresh news of another contract rejection, it seemed like nothing could drag down the year's most bummer-proof storyline.
Now its cast of unknowns — from new celebrities Dev Patel and Freida Pinto to kids plucked by director Danny Boyle from the slums of Mumbai, India — are all getting a trip to Hollywood's glitziest party.
For best picture, "Slumdog Millionaire" faces off against the romantic epic "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," the Richard Nixon saga "Frost/Nixon," the Harvey Milk tale "Milk" and the Holocaust-themed drama "The Reader."
Shot in India on a modest budget of $14 million, "Slumdog Millionaire" traces the life of a Mumbai orphan who overcomes poverty, betrayal, police torture and other hardships on his way to a reunion with his childhood love and success on India's version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."
The film nearly got lost in the shuffle as Warner Bros. folded its arthouse banner, Warner Independent, which had been slated to distribute "Slumdog Millionaire." It was rescued from the direct-to-video scrap heap when Fox Searchlight stepped in to release the film.
It's not all sunshine for "Slumdog Millionaire" going into the Oscars, though. A few raindrops fell on the red carpet at midmorning amid forecasts of a 30 percent chance of showers on Hollywood's big night. And hope of warm feelings between the Screen Actors Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers was lost late Saturday night when SAG's board of directors rejected the producers' "last, best and final offer" for a new contract.
Friday, February 20, 2009
'Slumdog Millionaire' child cast to attend Oscars afterall
UPDATE:
PopEater has the photos of the two kids getting ready for their trip.
"Slumdog Millionaire" Kids Will Attend The Oscars
MUMBAI, India — The child stars of "Slumdog Millionaire" will take their first airplane trip when they attend the Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles on Sunday.
The rags-to-riches story set and shot in the slums of Mumbai has been nominated for 10 Oscar awards, including best picture and best director.
All nine actors who play the three main characters in three stages of their lives will attend the Oscars, James Finn of Fox Searchlight Pictures said Friday. They include actors comfortable on the red carpet, like 18-year-old Dev Patel, who lives in London, and the glamorous Freida Pinto, 24, who has been praised in Vogue as a new style icon.
But also attending will be Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, 10, and Rubina Ali, 9, both of whom were plucked from their homes in a Mumbai slum by director Danny Boyle and his team. The trip will be their first on an airplane and their first out of the country, relatives said.
"I'm very happy that I'm going to the Oscars," Rubina said in her home Friday, hours before she was to leave for the United States. "My friends are saying, 'your fate is so good.'"
"I'm not scared," said Rubina, who will be traveling with her uncle. "I'm going to go and take a lot of pictures and show them to people over here."
She planned to go shopping Friday afternoon for a dress to wear to the ceremony.
Rubina's uncle, Mohidden Khan, 40, laughed when he was asked what he would wear on the red carpet.
"I'm thinking maybe jeans and a T-shirt," he said.
Azharuddin's father, Mohammed Ismail, said he felt "very, very good" that his son could make the trip. Azharuddin will be traveling with his mother.
Finn said Fox Searchlight had been making visa and travel arrangements for the children and their relatives up until the last minute. Securing visas and passports in India can be a torturous process, especially for impoverished Indians who often don't have the necessary identification forms and documents.
"Everybody is really excited about it," said Finn, who added that the actors would be staying in a five-star hotel. "It's nice the whole gang will be together."
Monday, February 16, 2009
Nate Silver, predictor of 2008 U.S. Presidential Election, knows Oscar winners
Nate Silver Predicts the Winners of the 2009 Oscars -- New York Magazine
After spending most of 2008 predicting the success of political actors—also called politicians—it’s only natural that Nate Silver (FiveThirtyEight.com) would turn his attention to the genuine article: the nominees in the major categories for the 81st Annual Academy Awards (Feb. 22 at 8 p.m. on ABC).
Best Director
Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire.................................99.7%
Gus Van Sant, Milk...................0.1%
David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button..................0.1%
Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon......0.0%
Stephen Daldry, The Reader..0.0%
When the Academy wants to rebel, it does so with Best Director—this is where “edgy” films are rewarded when it can’t muster the courage to do so for Best Picture (Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain, Steven Soderbergh for Traffic). That means Danny Boyle—who has won all the top awards for Slumdog Millionaire—is a shoo-in.Best Picture
Slumdog Millionaire..............99.0%
Milk................................................1.0%Frost/Nixon...................................0.0%
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.......................0.0%
The Reader..................................0.0%Slumdog Millionaire won all three awards associated with Oscar success: the Directors Guild Award, the Golden Globe, and the bafta. It’s also a serious film, which the Academy favors. If there’s an upset (which would be a shocker), it will be Milk; guilt over Prop 8 and the Brokeback snub of ’06 could split the vote, with Boyle getting Director and Milk getting Picture.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
India claims 'Slumdog Millionaire' as its own
AFP: 'Slumdog Millionaire' director coy about Oscar success
MUMBAI (AFP) — "Slumdog Millionaire" director Danny Boyle said Tuesday he is refusing to contemplate Oscar success, despite a string of accolades, as he returned to Mumbai for the film's Indian premiere.
"The most important thing for us this week is absolutely the opening here. Big time. That's serious," he told a news conference in the city alongside the hit movie's cast.
The rags-to-riches love story about a Mumbai slum dweller has been tipped for Academy Awards success after scooping four US Golden Globes earlier this month, including a best director award for Boyle.
The low-budget movie, made with virtual unknowns in the lead roles, has taken 40 million dollars at the US box office and more than six million pounds (8.4 million dollars) in Britain, its producer Christian Colson said.
It premieres in Mumbai Thursday and Indian audiences get the chance to see the film from Friday, both in the original English and in Hindi as "Slumdog Crorepati".
Boyle, whose credits include "Shallow Grave", "Trainspotting" and "28 Days Later", said he felt "incredibly blessed" by how the film has been received across the world, including the host of awards it has won.
"You can't expect anything really. You should always expect to get knocked down by a bus tomorrow morning, which is the only healthy thing to feel about success. It could all end at a moment's notice," he added.
"We have just been very fortunate to be where we are and... I never thought we would be here."
India has claimed "Slumdog Millionaire" as its own after the film's Golden Globes success and is eagerly awaiting next month's Oscars, despite it being directed, written and produced by a group of Britons and a British studio.
The cast, co-director Loveleen Tandan, acclaimed music director A.R. Rahman and the Vikas Swarup's novel "Q and A" on which the film is based are all Indian, as is the location -- Mumbai's sprawling Dharavi shantytown.
There is also a part-Hindi dialogue, Bollywood singing and dancing and some of the Indian film industry's biggest stars, Anil Kapoor and Irfan Khan.
"There's probably nowhere more important than releasing the film in Mumbai and this extraordinary city," Boyle told reporters.
But he brushed aside apparent criticism of the film's subject matter from Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan, who wrote on his personal website recently that dire poverty exists in every culture, not just in India.
The comments were interpreted by the Indian media as a slight on Western directors and their perceptions of the country, although Bachchan has denied he was being critical of Boyle's success.
Boyle said he and screenplay writer Simon Beaufoy wanted to include "as much of the city as possible that we saw and found. And there are some tough things and there are some extraordinary things", he said.
He accepted that his vision of India's "Maximum City" was not perfect but he hoped audiences would recognise the "breathtaking resilience" and lust for life of the Mumbaikars depicted in the film, despite their circumstances.
"Everybody has the privilege of saying whatever they want about it (the film). I think it's part of my job to accept criticism," he added.
'Slumdog Millionaire' nominated for 10 Oscars at the 81st Annual Academy Awards
British director Danny Boyle's hit film "Slumdog Millionaire" has won 10 Oscar nominations, three of them for Indian musician
He got the nomination for two songs composed by him "O Saya" and "Jai Ho". The film also was nominated in the sound editing and sound mixing categories.
The full list of nominations for Slumdog are:
- Best Picture: "Slumdog Millionaire"
- Best Director: Danny Boyle
- Adapted screenplay: Simon Beaufoy
- Music (Score): AR Rehman
- Music (Song): "Jai Ho" and "O Saya"
- Cinematography: Anthony Dod Mantle
- Film editing: Chris Dickens
- Sound editing: Tom Sayers
- Sound mixing: Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke, Resul Pookutty
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